Top Talmud Quotes

Favorite Talmud Quotes

1. "If you study the Talmud you please God even more than you do by praying or fasting."Author: Abraham Cahan

2. "I argue that the Talmud is about the constant struggle to understand."Author: Arthur Hertzberg

3. "At heart, Sussman was a theoretician. In another age, he might have been a Talmudic scholar. He had cultivated a Socratic method, zinging question after question at the reporters: Who moved over from Commerce to CRP with Stans? What about Mitchell's secretary? Why won't anybody say when Liddy went to the White House or who worked with him there? Mitchell and Stans both ran the budget committee, right? What does that tell you? Then Sussman would puff on his pipe, a satisfied grin on his face."Author: Carl Bernstein

4. "Or consider a story in the Jewish Talmud left out of the Book of Genesis. (It is in doubtful accord with the account of the apple, the Tree of Knowledge, the Fall, and the expulsion from Eden.) In The Garden, God tells Eve and Adam that He has intentionally left the Universe unfinished. It is the responsibility of humans, over countless generations, to participate with God in a "glorious" experiment - the "completing of the Creation." The burden of such a responsibility is heavy, especially on so weak and imperfect a species as ours, one with so unhappy a history. Nothing remotely like "completion" can be attempted without vastly more knowledge than we have today. But, perhaps, if our very existence is at stake, we will find ourselves able to rise to this supreme challenge."Author: Carl Sagan

5. "How do I convince him that the way we study Talmud is not a threat?''But it is a threat, Reuven. I just told you it is a threat. In the hands of those who do not love the tradition it is a dangerous weapon.''Everything is dangerous in the wrong hands. How do I convince him that we're not a threat?"Author: Chaim Potok

6. "Reuven listen to me. The Talmud says that a person should do two things for himself. One is to acquire a teacher. Do you remember the other.""Choose a friend," I said."Yes. You know what a friend is, Reuven? A Greek philosopher said that two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul."I nodded."Reuven, if you can, make Danny Saunders your friend.""I like him a lot, abba.""No. Listen to me. I am not talking about only liking him. I am telling you to make him your friend and to let him make you his friend."Author: Chaim Potok

7. "On 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' it takes almost a year to get 10 shows written. It always reminds me of my old yeshiva days, where you used to sit over a piece of Talmud and analyze everything that was going on."Author: David Steinberg

8. "CODE:Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.Tanakh (JPS, Genesis 3:17)DECODED:Blessed is He that discerneth secrets.Talmud (Berakoth 58a)"Author: H.W. Charles

9. "[F]or me, being a Jew means feeling the tragedy of yesterday as an inner oppression. On my left forearm I bear the Auschwitz number; it reads more briefly than the Pentateuch or the Talmud and yet provides more thorough information. It is also more binding than basic formulas of Jewish existence. If to myself and the world, including the religious and nationally minded Jews, who do not regard me as one of their own, I say: I am a Jew, then I mean by that those realities and possibilities that are summed up in the Auschwitz number."Author: Jean Améry

10. "It's the side-by-side culture of the Talmud I like so much. 'On the one hand' and 'on the other hand' is frustrating for people seeking absolute faith, but for me it gives religion an ambidextrous quality that suits my temperament."Author: Jonathan Rosen

11. "It is written in the Jewish law book, the Talmud, that only the Jew is human, that Gentiles are only animals."Author: Julius Streicher

12. "The Talmud expresses subtle relationship in an apocryphal story of a dialogue between God and Abraham. God begins by chiding Abraham: „If it wasn´t for Me, you wouldn´t exist."Lord, and for that I am very appreciative and grateful. However, if it wasn´t for me, You wouldn´t be known."Author: Leonard Shlain

13. "I have decided to follow in my sinful ways, and have largely abandoned the increasingly religious life I was leading over the previous months, including several hours of Talmudic study a day."Author: Luke Ford

14. "Where was this written? I wondered. Where in the Talmud or the Koran or the Bible did it say, "Lo, and Satan fetcheth the coffee for the Antichrist and her minions"?"Author: Lyda Morehouse

15. "I am a sworn atheist and therefore from my point of view the Talmud or the Koran don't constitute works of political philosophy but rather writings that stand in utter contradiction to concepts like logic, freedom, feminism, secularism, brotherhood - which are my ideals."Author: Michel Onfray

16. "In Judaism, there are 613 biblical commandments, and the Talmud says that the chief commandment of all is study."Author: Norman Lamm

17. "I'm a Larry David fan, right? And it seems to me that Jewish history from the Talmud on has been a self-deprecating, self-critical kind of humor."Author: Peter Eisenman

18. "Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow." - The Talmud"Author: Sapphire

19. "I never turn down a drink. Among friend's it's always appropriate. A man is only a man as they say but brandy is still brandy. You'll find that in the Talmud too."Author: Sholem Aleichem

21. "Biblical, Talmudic, or Koranic literalists remind me of children wrinkling their noses at Belon oysters and asking for more Chef Boy-E-Dee. They want the world to be as simple as they are."Author: Tim Kreider

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Today's Quote

The rule is any decent-looking girl asks to share your drink or have a lick of your ice cream or take a bite of a sandwich, you say yes. It's gross if you think about it, especially like now, Kristi's lips all covered with Ryan's spit, but there are some rules even you wouldn't break." Author: Charles Benoit